NCV(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NCV(4) — the ncv manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so you found the ncv page in the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and honestly? iconic. let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

ncv — the NCR 53C500 based SCSI host adapter driver. yes that's the whole name. short king energy. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so to get this driver baked into your kernel, you drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device scbus
device ncv

and if you'd rather just load it as a module at boot time (no recompiling, we love a low-effort queen 👑), you put this one line into loader.conf(5):

ncv_load="YES"

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so basically the ncv driver gives you access to the SCSI bus that's connected to an NCR 53C500 based PC-Card SCSI host adapter, or to an Adaptec AHA-2920 hanging out on the PCI bus. it's giving "bridge between your card and your SCSI stuff." 🫶

🌸 HARDWARE 🌸

these are the devices the ncv driver currently supports, no cap:

  • I-O DATA PCSC-DV
  • KME KXLC002 (TAXAN ICD-400PN, etc.), KXLC004, and UJDCD450
  • Macnica Miracle SCSI-II mPS110
  • Media Intelligent MSC-110, MSC-200
  • New Media Corporation BASICS SCSI
  • Qlogic Fast SCSI
  • RATOC REX-9530, REX-5572 (SCSI only)
note bestie: the REX-5572 is SCSI only. read the parentheses. 🙈

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

sometimes it just yells at you. here's the translation, fr fr:

  • SCSI BUS RESET failed — usually returned when a failure occurs during the bus reset.
  • CMD_NOP failed — no operation, or the operation has failed. 😭
  • CMD_NOP|CMD_DMA — a failure occurred during the DMA read/write operations.

and the ncv driver should return [ENODEV] when any of the previously noted failures occur. so if you see that, you know exactly what's up. ✨

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

go read these too, they're all part of the lore:

cardbus(4), cd(4), da(4), pccard(4), sa(4), scsi(4)

📜 HISTORY 📜

the ncv device driver has been developed for NetBSD/pc98 and ported to FreeBSD. the ncv driver first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2 with PAO and merged in FreeBSD 4.2. a whole glow-up arc, honestly. 🧚

💜 AUTHORS 💜

the ncv driver was written by Naofumi Honda. this manual page was written by Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> and Noriaki Mitsunaga <non@FreeBSD.org>. absolute legends, all of them. 🎀

and that's the whole page bestie, no notes 💅 this one's from the Debian crew, dated August 10, 2004, and it lives in section NCV(4) — periodt. 🌈

📦 where this page comes from